The Craft is a 1996 American supernatural horror film directed by Andrew Fleming and starring Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True. The film's plot centers on a group of four outcast teenage girls at a fictional Los Angeles parochial high school who pursue witchcraft for their own gain, but soon encounter negative repercussions, which prove to be the ruin of one of them and a harsh learning experience for the other three, according to the Rule of Three of Wicca, which states that one's actions, whether positive or negative, return to the actor threefold (that is, amplified).
The film was released on May 3, 1996, by Columbia Pictures and it was a surprise hit, earning $55 million with a budget of $15 million. In the years since its release, the film has gained a cult following.
Plot[]
Sarah Bailey, a troubled teenager, has just moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother. At her new school, she forms a friendship with a group of girls considered outcasts for one reason or another and rumored to be witches besides, Bonnie Harper (who bears burn scars from an auto accident), Nancy Downs (whose family is of modest means and whose stepfather is abusive) and Rochelle Zimmerman (who is African-American in the predominantly white school). At the same time, Sarah becomes attracted to the popular Chris Hooker. Bonnie, Nancy and Rochelle worship a powerful deity named "Manon".
Sarah already exhibited supernatural powers, and her new friends believe that she will complete their coven, making them all powerful. When Sarah is harassed by a vagrant with a snake (whom she had encountered before in her new house), he is immediately hit by a car and the girls believe that together they willed it to happen. It is also revealed that Sarah has attempted suicide in the past.
After a date with Chris, Sarah is upset to find that he has spread a false rumor that they have had sex and she was terrible in bed. When Sarah confronts him, he treats her disrespectfully in front of his friends. In response, Sarah casts a love spell upon him. In turn, Rochelle casts a revenge spell on hateful yet popular racist bully Laura Lizzie, Bonnie casts a spell for beauty, and Nancy for power. It very soon becomes clear that the spells have been successful: Chris becomes infatuated with Sarah, scars that Bonnie has on her back miraculously heal, and Rochelle's bully, Laura, begins to lose her hair. Nancy goes further by causing her stepfather to have a heart attack and die. This enables Nancy and her mother to cash in on his life insurance policy and move out of the trailer park they had been living in and into a luxurious high rise apartment.
Nancy becomes greedy for power and encourages the others to join her in a rite called "Invocation of the Spirit". On completion of the spell, she is struck by lightning. Afterward she lacks empathy and begins taking risks with her life and those of others.
The spells that the girls have cast soon begin to show negative consequences: Bonnie becomes aggressively narcissistic; Rochelle finds Laura Lizzie traumatized by her baldness and sobbing hysterically; Chris attempts to rape Sarah when she rejects his continual advances. In retaliation, Nancy uses a glamour spell to make herself look like Sarah, attempting to fool Chris into having sex with her. She is interrupted by the real Sarah who tells Nancy to leave with her. Upset at being fooled, Chris tells Nancy that she is jealous. Nancy then uses her power to kill Chris by throwing him out of a window.
Sarah performs a binding spell to prevent Nancy from doing more harm, but this does not work and the coven turns on Sarah. They invade her dreams, threaten her and use their powers of illusion to make Sarah believe that her father and stepmother have been killed in a plane accident. They torment her with visions of swarms of snakes, insects and rats, as well as making her believe she is responsible for Chris's and her mother's death when giving birth to her, trying to persuade her to commit suicide, before Nancy cuts Sarah's wrists herself. Although she is initially terrified, Sarah successfully "invokes the spirit" and is able to heal herself and fight back. She scares off Bonnie and Rochelle by bringing their worst fears to life, and defeats Nancy, binding her power to prevent her from doing harm.
Bonnie and Rochelle, finding they suddenly no longer have powers, go to Sarah to try to find out why, and to attempt reconciliation with her, only to find that Sarah now wants nothing more to do with them and that "Manon" has taken away their powers for abusing them. Nancy, whose powers have also been taken away, is committed to a psychiatric hospital; the movie's final scene shows her in a hospital gown, strapped to a bed, scratches on her face, moaning "I'm flying!" over and over again in despair as she grows visibly older, suggesting that her insanity and her incarceration is very lengthy and may be permanent.
Cast[]
- Robin Tunney as Sarah Bailey
- Fairuza Balk as Nancy Downs
- Neve Campbell as Bonnie Harper
- Rachel True as Rochelle Zimmerman
- Skeet Ulrich as Chris Hooker
- Cliff DeYoung as Mr. Bailey
- Christine Taylor as Laura Lizzie
- Breckin Meyer as Mitt
- Nathaniel Marston as Trey
- Helen Shaver as Grace Downs
- Assumpta Serna as Lirio
- William Newman as Street Preacher
- Brenda Strong as Doctor